1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a traffic sign device installed on a roadside post to exhibit various restrictions, directions, and warning on the road required for traffic safety or to show information regarding street names or location of a destination for convenience of drivers or pedestrians, and more particularly to a structure of a traffic sign device which allows a sign board to be easily attached to a post and which improves durability of the sign device with an acceptable appearance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, various road signs are installed on roadsides or above roads to show drivers and pedestrians information relating to a road and cautions in order to assure safety and smooth driving conditions, and which are further intended to provide drivers with information relating to use of a road to preserve the structure of the road.
Such a road sign is manufactured into a designated shape and size and installed according to the law so that the contents of the sign are shown in characters, signs, and a combination thereof.
Further, the road sign can be classified into three categories, that is, a cautionary sign which warns drivers and pedestrians of dangerous circumstances of a road and required precautions, a restrictive sign which forces them into a designated action, and a directive sign which notifies them of progressing direction or a distance to a destination, according to the nature of its communicative particulars.
Accordingly, the road sign should be installed properly to allow drivers and pedestrians to distinctly recognize its communicative information in the far distance and even at night.
Moreover, various road guide signs are installed on roadsides to show drivers and pedestrians information relating to a road, such as progressing direction of a road, a distance to a destination, and a destination point, for the drivers"" and pedestrians"" convenience.
According to the scale of a road, the above-mentioned road signs and road guide signs (hereinafter called xe2x80x9ctraffic signxe2x80x9d) assume the form of monopole or double-pole support. The monopole type traffic sign is supported on a post in a roadside in a cantilever manner. The double-pole type traffic sign is supported on a horizontal bar laid across two posts that are set on both sides of the road. Usually, the monopole type traffic sign prevails over the double-pole type one except highway and freeway.
A conventional monopole type traffic sign device is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. A traffic sign board 3 is mounted on a cantilever beam or hanger 2 fixed to an upper part of a post xe2x80x9cPxe2x80x9d. To this end, as shown in FIG. 1A, the sign board 3 has at its rear side a plurality of guide rails 4 attached thereto. The guide rails 4 are coupled to a vertical extension of the hanger 2 by inserting a head portion of a bolt 7 into the channel of the guide rail 4 and placing a. U-shaped band 5 on both ends of the hanger extension to fasten the bolt 7 with a nut 8 at each flange 6 of the U-shaped band 5, as illustrated in FIG. 1b. The end of cantilever hanger 2 is fixed to a band clamp 1, so that the hanger 2 is horizontally supported on the post xe2x80x9cPxe2x80x9d.
Such a structure of conventional traffic sign device can be found in Korean Laid-open Patent Publication No.1999-79008 and Korean Registered Utility Model Publication No. 20-0195042.
However, since the conventional structure for supporting traffic sign has the guide rails 4 attached to the rear side of the sign board 3 and the U-shaped bands 5 for coupling the sign board to the hanger 2, the U-shaped bands 5 must be fastened by the bolts 7 and nuts 8 at both its ends after assembling the bolts 7 in the guide rails 4, an operation of establishing the traffic sign on the post xe2x80x9cPxe2x80x9d is considerably complicated.
Though the respective components are manufactured by iron material and then coated with paint, the components are apt to be oxidized and corroded due to aging of the paint at their coupled portions, thereby causing contamination of the post xe2x80x9cPxe2x80x9d and reduction of service life of the traffic sign.
Furthermore, since the sign board 3 is formed into thin plate and the assembly of the guide rails 4 and bolts 7 are exposed to the public, scenery of roads is significantly spoiled. Additionally, the sign board 3 is apt to be deformed due to its poor structural strength.
To overcome these problems of the conventional traffic sign device, various traffic sign devices are proposed in publications, for example, Korean Registered Utility Model Publication No. 1996-9278, Korean Laid-open Utility Model Publication No. 1998-9420, Korean Registered Utility Model Publication Nos. 20-0167877 and 20-0265849, and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H10-168835.
In the Korean Registered Utility Model Publication No. 1996-9278, a sign device has a pair of separate sign panels, made from plastic materials, each of the sign panels is provided with a boss and a protrusion to be fittingly coupled each other. An insertion boss is formed at one of the sign panels to be fitted in the top portion of a post.
Although this traffic sign device has advantages of easy installation operation, free from corrosion, and acceptable appearance, the sign panels are apt to be disassembled by an external force since they are assembled by a simple fitting operation. Therefore, the sign panel of the sign device is also apt to be deformed due to its poor structural strength.
In the Korean Laid-open Utility Model Publication No.1998-9420, the sign device includes a first and second sign panels having a guide rail at their rear side. The guide rail is adapted to be coupled to a horizontal bar fixed to a post, by mean of a plurality of U-shaped bands.
On the other hand, the Korean Registered Utility Model Publication No. 20-0265849 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H10-168835 disclose a sign device in which a sign board is provided at it rear side a separate cover for preventing exposure of the coupling part between the post hanger and the sign board.
However, since these sign boards must be fixed with relative to the post by means of the band and bolts, an operation of coupling the sign board on the post is considerably complicated. Also, in the case of the Korean Laid-open Utility Model Publication No. 1998-9420, since the bolt coupling parts of the sign board cannot be completely shielded by the cover, there still remains the problem of corrosion of the sign board components.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a traffic sign device which allows a sign board to be easily installed on a post, while minimizing the exposure of coupling part of the sign board.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a traffic sign device which improves structural strength of the sign board and enables efficient suppression of oxidization and corrosion of associated components, so as to permanently maintain its favorable appearance and to extend its service life.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a traffic sign device which allows a sign board to be easily and stably installed on a post, regardless of a size and a shape of the post.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a sign device, which comprises: a post clamp including at least two arched clamping bands, which are hingedly coupled to each other at their adjacent ends and joined to each other by a fastening element at their free ends to be installed on a post; a support bar radially joined to one of the clamping bands of the post clamp to be horizontally positioned; and a sign board radially joined to one end of the support bar, the sign board includes a barrel shaped band frame having a coupling groove formed at its both peripheral edges, and a coupling slot formed at a circumferential surface of the band frame, through which the free end of the support bar passes and being fixed therein, and a front and rear covers having a skirt formed along the peripheral edge of the respective covers so that the skirt of the covers is fitted into the coupling groove of the band frame and a road sign is attached to the outside of the covers.
In accordance with the preferred feature of the present invention, the sign board further includes a coupling unit for fixing the free end of the support bar therein, the coupling unit includes: a reinforcing block having a T-shaped slot formed at the inside thereof to have a desired depth from its outer surface, and a coupling plate joined to the free end of the support bar so as to be fittingly inserted into the bottom portion of the T-shaped slot, and wherein the coupling plate is formed to have a width larger than the diameter of the support bar, and the reinforcing block is fixed inside the sign board such that the reinforcing block is interposed between the front and rear cover and both cutting surfaces of the reinforcing block are attached to the inner surface of the respective covers, by an adhesive.
In accordance with another feature of the present invention, the support bar is provided with a pair of screw holes axially formed on the inner surface thereof, and the support bar is coupled to the sign board such that the free end of the support bar is inserted into the coupling slot of the band frame, across the inside thereof, until the free end of the support bar is reached to an inner surface of the band frame, whereby screws are fitted into the screw holes of the support bar from outside of the band frame.
In accordance with a preferred feature of this invention, the support bar includes a socket pipe perpendicularly joined to on of the clamping bands of the post clamp by welding, the socket pipe being axially provided at its circumference with a plurality of spaced joint holes, and a movable pipe slidably inserted into the socket pipe with its one end joined to the sign board, the movable pipe being axially provided at its circumference with a plurality of spaced adjustment holes corresponding to the joint holes of the socket pipe, whereby the movable pipe is fixed to the socket pipe by tightening bolts through the joint holes and adjustment holes.
Preferably, the post clamp, the hanger and the sign board may be made of nonferrous metal excellent in corrosion resistance, such as aluminum and the like.
By the traffic sign device according to the present invention, a sign board is easily installed on a post by a simple operation of placing the post clamp on a post and joining the movable pipe fixed to the sign board into the socket pipe fixed to the post clamp by bolts and nuts, an operation of installing the sign board is much simplified.
Further, since the sign board is formed into a drum shape, and the joint portion relative to the support bar is positioned inside the sign board, the coupling part in the sign board is effectively prevented from being exposed. This allows the traffic sign device to have excellent structural strength enough to resist flexure and deformation, and to have an acceptable appearance for a long period of time, thereby contributing to visual improvement of the cityscape.
In addition, since associated components of the device are manufactured from nonferrous metal excellent in corrosion resistance, it is possible to prevent rusting and corrosion of the components, ensure favorable appearance of the structure, and extend a service life of the structure.